Wednesday 23 October 2013 19.54 EDT
First published on Wednesday 23 October 2013 19.54 EDT

Children as young as 12 are testing positive for sexually transmitted chlamydia, according to an Australian study that highlights hundreds of cases among girls aged under 16.

The study showed that children were vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), said lead author Carol El-Hayek, a speaker at the Australasian Sexual Health Conference in Darwin.

She and her team from the Burnet Institute studied data from 286,000 tests on people aged 12 to 24 from 2008 to 2010.

About 10,300 tests were on girls aged 12 to 15, with 1338 testing positive.Of these, El-Hayek said 10 to 15 of the positive tests were from girls aged 12 and about 800 were from 15-year-olds.

She emphasised, however, that the figures did not reflect the infection rate among the general population. It was not general screening – health workers would have requested the tests because of specific concerns about the individual girls, she said.

But the results highlighted a risk among younger adolescents with research showing that three in 10 Australians were sexually active before the age of 16, said El-Hayek.

Other research presented at the conference showed chlamydia was rampant in Australia, with 82,707 cases diagnosed in 2012.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Professor David Wilson from the Kirby Institute, which compiled the data. He estimated that one in 20 Australians aged of 15 to 24 carried the infection, which can lead to infertility and other complications.

"Young people are definitely sexually active and at risk of STIs," El-Hayek said. "We need to encourage more testing. Doctors should become more comfortable about asking them about their sexual behaviour."